Bale a doubt for Bayern Munich rematch

Zinedine Zidane described Cristiano Ronaldo as “amazing” and hailed the Real Madrid forward’s continued motivation after he made more history with his double against Bayern Munich. “That is how ambitious he is”.

“When I started scoring goals in the Champions League I never thought I would break this record”.

Atletico are next up and aim to cement their place in third at home facing bottom of the table Osasuna, who nevertheless travel to the capital following consecutive wins, which will probably do little to help their campaign to avoid the drop.

Then comes the crucial Clasico clash with Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday week.

Madrid defender Sergio Ramos added: “We’ve taken a big step in the tie, but there’s still the return leg to come against great opposition, who have shown that they’re one of the favourites to win the competition”.

“I thought it was going to be a tough game before I went out onto the pitch and Bayern started the game really strong”, he said. Thus his 13 non-penalty goals are the fourth most in the league, considerably behind the tallies of La Liga’s most consistent scoring demons Luis Suárez (24 non-penalty goals) and Lionel Messi (23).

And yet the transition-going from a goal-scoring, cut-inside winger to more of an out-and-out striker-he’s been moving his game toward for years now has been wildly successful, and allows this less athletically superior Ronaldo to be almost as deadly as before.

Neuer made two remarkable saves from Ronaldo and Karim Benzema a few minutes apart towards the end of the match at the Allianz Arena.

Arturo Vidal headed Bayern into a first-half lead yesterday, but then skied a penalty attempt on the stroke of half-time before Ronaldo volleyed the defending champions level. Real deserved the win which Ronaldo sealed by reaching the 100-goal milestone on 77 minutes.

“Dortmund? I’m not the person to say if Borussia should’ve played or not”. “The results are going our way and I’m happy for that”. The last time Real failed to score was last April, in a 0-0 draw at Manchester City in the Champions League semi-finals.

“We can’t do anything, we must wait”, Zidane said about Bale’s injury. The Bavarians now have it all to do for the return in Madrid next Tuesday.

Zidane told a news conference that the latest injury is another calf issue, and the Wales international’s condition is now a worry as Madrid head into the most important part of the season.

“We know April will be a hard, decisive month, and the team looks good”.

Once again, only above their bitter rivals FC Barcelona by three points and a game-in-hand, Real Madrid are, as per usual, in a position where they need to acquire all three points in their weekend La Liga match.